SPARTANBURG, S.C. – By virtue of a 10-6 finish in conference play, the UNCG volleyball team has earned the No. 4 seed for the upcoming Southern Conference Championship scheduled for Nov. 22-24 at Timmons Arena on the campus of Furman University.

The Spartans (17-12, 10-6 SoCon) will face fifth-seeded Appalachian State (18-12, 9-7 SoCon) in the tournament’s first game Friday at 10 a.m. The semifinal matches will be held at 5:00 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday Nov. 23, with the championship match set for 6 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 24 on ESPN3.

Regular season champion Georgia Southern earned the No. 1 seed while Furman is the No. 2 seed after winning the tiebreaker over No. 3 Samford. Western Carolina is the six seed while Wofford and Elon earn the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds, respectively, based on tiebreaker procedures.

UNCG’s 10 SoCon victories mark the most for the program since 2008 and the first time the Spartans have notched double figures since the league moved to a 16-match conference schedule.

Game 1: No. 4 UNCG (17-12, 10-6) vs. No. 5 Appalachian State (18-12, 9-7)UNCG and Appalachian State will meet for just the second time this season in the opening game of the SoCon Volleyball Tournament. The Mountaineers swept UNCG 3-0 in their lone meeting on Nov. 2. The Spartans will be the fourth seeded team as they ended conference play with a 10-6 record, while ASU finished at 9-7.

Game 2: No. 1 Georgia Southern (25-5, 13-3) vs. No. 8 Elon (16-16, 7-9)Georgia Southern won its second-consecutive SoCon regular season title, finishing with a 13-3 mark in league play. The Eagles will take on Elon at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22 in the second match of the opening day of the SoCon Tournament. Elon is the eighth seed after finishing 7-9 on the year in SoCon play. The Phoenix dropped two matches to GSU during the regular season, a 3-1 loss on Sept. 27 and a 3-0 defeat on Oct. 12.

Game 3: No. 3 Samford (12-4) vs. No. 6 Western Carolina (8-8)Samford settles in as the third seed in the SoCon Tournament with a 12-4 regular season record and will face a Western Carolina team that went 8-8 in conference action. The two teams split their regular season matches this season, with the Catamounts taking a 3-1 win on Oct. 9, and the Bulldogs taking the Nov. 9 match 3-1. This matchup will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Game 4: No. 2 Furman (16-11, 12-4) vs. No. 7 Wofford (13-17, 7-9) Furman ended the regular season tied with Samford at 12-4 in SoCon matches. The Paladins earned the No. 2 seed based on the league’s tiebreaker. Furman will do battle with Wofford, which ended with a 7-9 record in league play. The Paladins and Terriers will be the final match of the opening day, as the match will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday Nov. 22. Furman won both matches over Wofford in the regular season.

The tournament winner earns the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Volleyball Championships.